February 4, 2005

Found via Gregorian Ranting, this outstanding source for weird music. As a service, here are some examples I placed in the Ranter library to spare their server: Ukrainian cover of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell Chinese-speaking version of rock’n’roll standard, Love Potion No. 9 German cover of Rappers’ Delight – beware this is really, really wrong!…

Excellent guest editorial at Juan Cole’s concerning the danger of paralysis in post-election Iraq. Personally, I suspect that a scenario like the one he describes, in which the new constitutional assembly locks up in a permanent veto of the constitutional draft and/or the government, is both likely and dangerous. In a sense, it may be…

A little while ago we made the acquaintance of dodgy Afghan airline KAM-AIR and its fleet of ex-Viktor Bout aircraft, back here. We touched on the surprising appearance of YA-GAA, the Boeing 727 formerly operated for Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum by Chris Barrett-Jolley after his departure from Britain and before his coke-smuggling conviction, and…

Phil Hunt of Cabalamat Journal reports on a happy development: the European directive on software patents, famously prevented from passing quickly by the Polish delegation’s refusal to let it through (hence the “Thank you, Poland” campaign), has now been kicked solidly into touch by the European Parliament. The parliamentary legal affairs committee decided by an…

Over at the Daily Kos, an interesting story is up concerning the Iraqi woman who appeared with George Bush at the State of the Union address. If you recall, she was the one who hugged the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. It turns out that she has every reason to be grateful to…